Contents

Biography

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Early
career

Troelstra was born in Leeuwarden on April 20, 1860 as the son of a
liberal tax inspector. He was an ethnic Frisian, and his
name is styled in the traditional Frisian way: first name
("Pieter", because of his Frisian writings often also written as
"Piter", as it is spelled in Frisian), patronymic ("Jelles",
meaning "son of Jelle"), family name (Troelstra).

He went to read law at the University of Groningen. When
he was finished he settled in Leeuwarden as a lawyer. He got into contact with politics and
the workers' movement through a Frisian movement, later to be known as the
Friese Volkspartij (Frisian People's Party). He had
originally joined this movement because of his poetry and interest
in the West Frisian language. Through
the movement and his work as a lawyer, he got into the social-democratic part of this wide
movement.

Founding of
the SDAP

After trying to get some members of the SDB to join him, he was
one of the twelve men who started the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij
(Social-Democratic Workers' Party, SDAP) in 1894. Unlike the old
SDB, the SDAP was more like its German counterpart,
then still also named the SDAP, which was taking a more reformist
course, trying to get social law implemented, while still keeping
the ideal of revolution up.

Troelstra was inclusive in his outlook. As leader of the
Parliamentary faction of the SDAP, he did not insist upon a tight
party line. This permitted a period of harmony within the SDAP
between 1894 and 1900.

Both within and outside parliament, the SDAP proved to be a
powerful force, despite their relatively small representation in
the House of
Representatives. However, the socialist felt a moral advantage
because parliament could hardly be said to be an accurate
representation of the people and they used their possibilities to
the full, among other things by filibustering (each
representative had an unlimited speaking time). When, in 1911 a
majority of parliament even refused to vote on an SDAP motion, the
anger of the party was expressed by one of its most fiery speakers,
J.H. Schaper:

In that case, the inkwells will fly through the room. [...] I
cannot be held accountable for anything. I assure you, we will
start throwing chairs.[1]

This antagonism between the SDAP and more conservative forces
would cause bitterness for a long time afterwards, and also
explains much of Troelstra's actions.

The 1913 elections
and universal suffrage

Troelstra's biggest political issue was universal suffrage in the Netherlands. This struggle reached its
climax in 1910-1913. After electoral success in the 1913 general
election, the SDAP under Troelstra's leadership was offered a place
in the a coalition government. This proposed coalition had plans
for universal suffrage but a party congress renounced such a close
co-operation with its traditional enemy. Some MPs such as the
SDAP's co-founders Vliegen and Schaper, were very distraught over what
they saw as a tactical disaster. Vliegen wrote in 1934:

I have never been able to prefer a government without social
democrats over one with them, as evident as it may be that one
cannot entertain all company. I still think that the refusal to
accept government responsibility in 1913 is one of the most
significant errors the SDAP ever made[2]

There is evidence to suggest that Troelstra himself was rather
relieved; he had only reluctantly supported the request for
government participation. Universal suffrage eventually did come to
be in the Netherlands in 1917, under the leadership of the liberal
minority cabinet of Cort van der Linden.

Proclamation of the
socialist revolution

Inspired by the Russian
Revolution of 1917 and the German Revolution
of 1918, Troelstra made one of the moves that would guarantee him a
place in parliamentary history: the proclamation of the socialist
revolution in November 1918. There was already talk of possible
revolutions in Great
Britain and France. The
poverty that resulted from the World War I, and the Spanish flu epidemic of
1918 had struck the lower class hard (also in the Netherlands). And
now there was unrest in the Netherlands as well. In military camp
Harskamp soldiers had started a revolt, which spread to a dozen
other camps. This had nothing to do with politics, but the Russian
revolution the previous year had also started like this. And there
was such unrest among the workers in Rotterdam that a strike was likely. On 5
November, Troelstra warned parliament for what might come. Right
wing politicians also started thinking a revolution was
unavoidable. On 9 November, the German emperor Wilhelm
II abdicated (and fled to the neutral Netherlands), a sign of
the crumbling hierarchy, upon which a revolution in Germany seemed
imminent. The mayor of Rotterdam saw what might come and called a
meeting with socialists to ensure that, in case of a revolution,
essential facilities like gas and water plants were left alone. The
government had a similar meeting. On 10 November, members of the
SDAP who were at first sceptical now believed that a revolution was
indeed possible.

The navy in Den
Helder decided to disarm the sailors because there was too much
unrest among them. The also socialist party RSC organised a meeting
with mainly soldiers, who next marched on a military barracks to
seek support, but were shot at, resulting in 3 dead and 18
wounded.

On the argument that the revolution would not stop at the
border, Troelstra suggested that power be transferred to the SDAP.
A program of changes was drawn, including women's
suffrage, an 8-hour working day, abolition of the Senate, nationalisation of
appropriate companies and a state pension at the age of 60. But the
party thought the time was not ripe and did not allow him to go any
further—which he ignored.

On 11 November, Troelstra proclaimed the revolution, during a
debate about the general Snijder's suppression of the Harskamp
revolt. A government committee had advised the dismissal of
Snijders because he "had proved unable to grasp the spirit of the
new age". Snijder's departure was being stalled, however, according
to rumours due to the personal involvement of the Dutch Queen
Wilhelmina. At a certain point, Troelstra took the stage, and
in the words of the later Dutch prime minister Drees:

"[Troelstra's socialist colleague] Vliegen had warned him, the
party representatives were concerned about what they'd read in the
morning newspapers. Troelstra started out moderately, but after he
while he erupted again, spoke about 'taking over power' and
'revolution', and that the time had come for it." [3]

But the government had already started a counter-campaign
(including posters and the spreading of 500,000 pamphlets) telling
people that the revolutionaries formed a small minority. This
caused the 'Orange-movement' (oranjebeweging), named after the
colour of the royal house because it played on national and
loyalist sentiments. Many people that were not monarchists (like
Roman Catholics and moderate socialists) joined the Orange-movement
because they felt a socialist revolution went too far.
Trustworthy sections of the army were mobilised and sent to
Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague and vigilante patrols were
installed. On 12 November, Troelstra held a long speech in
parliament. But the moment had gone. The revolution did not take
place.

This has come to be known as Troelstra's Mistake
(Troelstra's Vergissing). It has been said that the Dutch
did not really want a revolution. But others claim the potential
leaders just were not prepared and did not seize the moment. The
SDAP was divided and when they united they did so too late. The
most active players in all this were the 'counter-revolutionaries'
(the authorities). A symbolic act would have been needed, like
occupying the city hall in Rotterdam, the centre of unrest and an
SDAP stronghold.

After
the 'Revolution'

After all this Troelstra was broken and stayed at home, but at a
party conference two weeks later he was received with a standing
ovation. Although he could defend the position that the party had
never had actual plans for a coup, his reputation had taken irreparable
damage, both within and outside the party (if not among party grass
roots).

The SDAP would not be re-invited to form a government until the
national cabinet of 1939. But the establishment and the political
right wing had gotten a fright. The next cabinet, under Hendrikus
Colijn, although right-wing, started social reforms to take
away discontent which might give the socialists further support.
Despite this (or maybe to some partly because of this), Troelstra
was and still is seen as an inspirational figure for many in the
Dutch workers' movement.

He withdrew from politics in 1925 and devoted much time, despite
ever declining health, to dictating his memoirs to his secretary,
the later Amsterdam
alderman Herman Wiardi Beckman. These memoirs
(Gedenkschriften), which appeared in four volumes
('Genesis', 'Growth', 'Surf' and 'Storm') after 1925, almost became
part of the furniture in the house of many Dutch workers, further
testimony to Troelstra's reputation among his followers.

Peter Jelles Troelstra died on May 12, 1930 in The Hague. To this day the
The Hague section of the PvdA, the successor of the SDAP,
celebrates labour day at a monument to Troelstra.